Hey Shorty, We hunt right by Rome along Hwy 13 and Akron Drive. Have been going there for the last few years with no luck. That paper company land is pretty hard to hunt with all the brush and excess junk between the lanes. Is that where you shot yours this year? Nice bird by the way.

4/29/10 Zone 7 two year old, 20.8#, 11-1/16 beard, 3/4 spurs. I scouted for 4 days and never seen or heard a bird, I finally found some tracks in just one of the places I checked. So I stopped at the sport shop in town to see if anyone was seeing birds and they all said the same thing, nope. I stopped at 3 registration stations, one had 3 birds, one had 5 and the other had 0 birds registared. Figured OH BOY this is going to be tough. Weds morning headed to where I seen the only turckey track I found, YES one set of tracks. Dawn broke and dead silence, nothing, zilch. stayed until noon then headed out for lunch. Scouted a new area in the afternoon, still nothing, but I found a small clearing about a 1/4 acare in the middle of some thick cedars and figured this would be a great strut zone if birds where here, it was covered with bright green grass. Thurs. morning headed for the strut zone, 19 degrees, wind blowing like a mother, 25mph with gusts 35-40mph. And more dead silence. I figured with the cold and wind that bad that the birds would be tucked in those thick cedars and that opening would be a gold mine. I had a hen deke in the middle of it and there was a old tree top laying in it that I tuck back up against. All I did for calling was hard cutts and clucks about once an hour, never yelped at all. About 9:30 I thought I heard a bird? So I gave him some more hard cutting. About a half hour later I see a white head up out of a pine and look around then disappear, waited a few minutes and laid into it again. Out he came, hit the opening and went into full strut at 45yds. I put the bead on him and waited, he strutted up to 32yds and broke strut, BANG tag one is history. Sometimes you just got to get lucky.
Everyone I talked to said the same thing, that they had birds all over the place until last Sept. then they disappeared, even people with bird feeders in their yards said the same thing?

nice bird......it sounds like it was more than luck getting that bird. I tagged one on wedsnesday and was glad I did after i woke up on thursday and heard the wind howling. i was working one early on weds morning but the farmers dog chased it away so i stayed put and let out some lost yelps every 1/2 hour and @ around 9 am here come a red head trying to sneak in on me. didn't make a sound. shot him at about 30 yds.I'll post pics when the seasons done cause I'm using a disposible right now. Once again congrats to all.

Dang Jakes, I had a good bird coming in he had 2 hens with him. The hens came to the deke and the tom hung up at 35 yds but behind some small trees. He was there about 15 min. and 3 jakes came out the end of the woods and came on a run. Busted the tom and chased him out about 150 yds into the center of the field then they got into a fight and ended up chasing him back into the woods. The hens stayed with the dekes and then went looking for the tom. Dang Jakes anyway [:@].

Had a great morning, Only heard 2 birds gobble on the roost, I heard one bird gobble on the ground. I laid into him with my box calls and he gobbled back so I switched to my glass and gave him some hard cutts and the whole woods exploded. 3 hens came out of the woods and looked at my 3 dekes, they started puttin and busted, one flew off and the other two ran away, I started to run some fighting purrs as soon as they busted. 3 jakes came out and saw my strutter and came on the run. About the time they got there 2 long beards came out and ran after them, they were about half way there when 2 long beards came on the run from the other side of the field. I had 7 toms beating up my strutter and each other, boy feathers were flying. This is one of the bigger birds, the best I could keep track of him. 22#, 10-3/8 beard, 3/4 spurs. [:D]

Season update: My daughter had the 3rd season this year and killed her first turkey on Sat. May1st. It weighed 25.5 lbs with 11 inch beard and 1 inch spurs!!! We were both totally pumped and excited when she shot him at 930 in the morning after leaving our third setup to try and get closer to the distant gobbles we were hearing. I have pictures this time and will try and post them soon, I'm not much of a computer geek though. She was using her 20 ga. remington pump 870 turkey special shooting #5s nitro and shot him at 35 yards. I might have her hooked now!!! I am so proud of her and she did a great job closing the deal when the time was right. This was definitely my favorite hunt in many, many years of chasing the Fatboys!!!! The seasons are finally over now and I have got to work on those pictures asap. Good luck and Good hunting Joe

"You need to drink a few large glasses of beer tonight. That is the only solution. "